Naruto Parallels 1-1: What if Sasuke and Naruto's Roles were Reversed?
by TheDisGamer
Summary: Have you ever wondered what the story of Naruto would have been like if Naruto had been the harsh and angry one, while Sasuke was kind and optimistic! In this series of Naruto Parallels I play with this idea of reversing Sasuke and Naruto's story lines by adding some unique twists to the story as it exists in the actual series!
1. Chapter 1: The Acadmey

Naruto Parallels: Series 1-1

Hey There!

I'm a huge Naruto fan! I love the entire series, but I'm mostly a watcher of the anime (subbed never dubbed because I can't STAND the dubbed voices). I do know the outcome of the series and I've played around with Fan Fiction before, mostly with filler stuff that isn't shown, but right now in the most recent episodes on Hulu where I watch, everyone is trapped in Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi and the series is showing depictions of everyone's dreams. I find it interesting that a lot of the dreams ultimately end up having some truth to them, but I really loved TenTen's dream and how instead of it being her wildest desires, it was more "dream esc" and depicted what the class and village would be like if the class had these vastly different personalities. I also loved Jiraiya's book in Tsunade's dream and how it depicted things if Naruto and Sasuke's families never died. Thus my new fan fiction series was born where I take different prompts and write a Fic based on if the prompt were true or false. If you have any fun prompts feel free to let me know! I'm looking for fun suggestions and I would love to flex my writing skills and see just how creative we can get! I hope you enjoy them!

Prompt: What if Naruto and Sasuke's roles were reversed?

Story Tangent: Unlike the actual series where Sasuke knows who killed his clan, and is driven by anger. In order to flip Naruto's roles, I changed that detail so that, while Sasuke did lose his entire clan, he has no idea it was his brother's doing (though he is still the one who did it in my parallel universe). As a means of giving his brother a better life, Itachi asked the third Hokage, Lord Hiruzen, to appoint Sasuke to his old ANBU Captain, Kakashi's team after the academy, and asked Kakashi to look after his brother as a friend and fellow Sharingan user. He also left behind a letter (contents revealed in the story) that managed to quell Sasuke's anger and convince him to serve Konoha honorably as a shinobi. Hiruzen was so busy with the impending Uchiha overthrow, and later Itachi's requests, that he took no interest in Naruto or helping improve his life and as a result he succumbed to his anger and loneliness early in his life, and the Nine-Tails regularly stoked the fire. Instead of entering the Academy determined and kind, he entered angry and closed off, resulting in no relationship being formed between he and Iruka. Sasuke lives honorably to fulfill his brother's wishes for his life and Naruto lives in obscurity, not caring about much at all.

CHAPTER ONE: THE ACADEMY

Sasuke could sense the hatred of the boy who sat at the desk next to Sakura. Though he wasn't sure he wanted to start his Academy days with someone with such bad energy, he really wanted to sit next to Sakura. His face flushed red as he tried to make his decision when Iruka walked up behind him and patted him gently on his back.

"Come Sasuke, you can sit here."

He pushed Sasuke toward the empty seat next to Sakura, though she wasn't paying any attention to him as he approached. He sat in the seat on Sakura's right side. As he slid his chair closer to the desk, Sakura turned and looked at him. His face flushed with embarrassment; he couldn't believe how much more beautiful she was up close. She suddenly began to twist her head between Sasuke and the boy on her other side. She started smiling and blushing before standing up with excitement and pointing at a girl sitting behind them a row with long blond hair.

"TAKE THAT INO! I'M SITTING BETWEEN SOMEONE REALLY COOL AND SOMEONE REALLY HANDSOME! CHA!"

The girl, Ino, stood up and began shouting back. Sasuke blushed and smiled at the compliment peeking around Sakura to see if the other boy had the same reaction. He could barely see his face as he stared out the window, but his expression was harsh. He had spiky blond hair, and three slash marks on his face that almost looked like whiskers. That's when he remembered who this boy was.

He thought back to the time he was walking through the park with his older brother Itachi, and noticed him sitting alone and crying on the swings. He remembered that all the other children were avoiding him and his brother told him that he was a boy whose parents had died in a great calamity in the past. The calamity caused many people to hate and fear the boy. He always told Sasuke he would tell him more when he was older, but now he's gone.

Sasuke's thoughts faded away as the familiar pain in the pit of his stomach returned and he suddenly felt very sick. Though he could kind of hear Sakura and Ino shouting, in his mind their mindless yelling reminded him of the screams of his clan.

He shook his head as if to knock away the memories and did his best to pay attention to Sakura again.

"JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE SITTING BETWEEN THEM DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING!" Ino shouted out.

"Now, now, calm down." Iruka waved his hands at the girls. Both of them blushed at his beckoning. Ino seemed to pout, while Sakura smiled excitedly.

"Okay, welcome to your first day at Ninja Academy! I'm one of your instructors Iruka, and my job is to each you all about what it means to be a shinobi with a successful career here in Konoha! Over the course of your time here you'll learn and practice many things. I've no doubt that many of you have practiced different things with your families, but here it's important to focus on learning the same things as everyone else and apply them successfully! These others in this class are now your comrades, and it's your job to do your best as both their rivals and their friends!"

Iruka smiled brightly, and Sasuke smiled back. Something about his spirit was very calming and it made Sasuke feel much better from just a few moments before.

"Now then. Today will be just about meeting one another and understanding why we're all here! To that end I have a question for you!"

Iruka sensei started to pass out pencils and small scraps of paper to everyone. "This question may seem silly but I want you to think about it very carefully. It's actually very important."

Everyone looked at him with increased curiosity as he finished passing out the materials and returned to the head of the class.

"If the moon was falling from the sky, and today was the last day you had to live on earth, who would you spend it with?" He asked finally.

There was a hushed mumbling over the class as everyone contemplated the question.

"It can be as many or as few people as you'd like, but be prepared, we'll discuss why you selected your answers."

Sasuke stared down at his paper. He knew exactly who he would want to spend his last day with. As he considered it, the pain grew in his stomach again. He could feel his eyes begin to water with sadness but he knew he couldn't show those emotions anymore, if he wanted to be strong he had to get over the pain of the past. That's what Itachi told him, and that's what he would do.

"If I only had one day left to live, I wish food would fall from the sky instead of the moon!" A porkier kid said from the front row, and everyone began laughing at him. Sasuke thought it was funny but he was in no mood to laugh. He glanced over at Sakura who was smiling brightly. Sasuke blushed, he really loved her smile. Glancing past her he noticed that the boy was bending and folding his paper.

Sasuke looked back at his own paper and began to write out his brother's name. He jumped slightly when Iruka suddenly started yelling.

"AH NARUTO, DON'T THROW YOUR PAPER OUT THE WINDOW!" He marched over to Naruto and placed another piece of paper on his desk.

"I don't have anyone or anything. What would I write on this paper?" The boy grumbled out at Iruka.

Iruka stared at him in sadness for a moment. Sasuke could tell that he didn't really know what to tell him. Sasuke didn't have anyone either but he had memories of ones he loved. Though his brother was gone, he knew him once, but if this boy that Iruka called Naruto never knew his family, it was true to wonder what he would put. Sasuke suddenly felt very selfish. He actually felt better knowing there was someone else in a similar situation to his own.

"Well it may not make much sense to you, but I don't have anyone either. We can spend our last day together." Sasuke smiled brightly.

"That's the spirit Sasuke!" Iruka praised.

For the first time the entire class period, Naruto looked over at Sasuke. He stared at him for a minute under a cold glare and then looked down at his paper.

"If you don't' have anyone why did you write someone down on your paper?" Naruto questioned.

Sasuke's face flushed red as his sadness grew again. "It's my brother Itachi, but he's dead now."

Naruto shifted his glance back to Sasuke who returned the gaze with a half-smile. Finally, Naruto looked away from him. "I would rather spend my time alone because that's what I'm used to." Naruto whispered out.

Sasuke watched him sadly. He hadn't had the love of a family. Sasuke suddenly felt grateful for the chance to know his family before they were killed; his memory of them is what kept him strong. Even though he had no one left, his understanding of loneliness was very different from Naruto's. He looked back down at his paper and scratched the name out, re-writing Naruto in it's place. He wanted to give Naruto a reason to want to spend his last day with someone other than loneliness and until Naruto picked someone of his own, Sasuke knew he would just have to do.

Iruka walked back to the head of the class. He hesitated for a minute before he kept going. "Well does anyone else want to share?"

Students excitedly began to share their answers but Sasuke couldn't stop staring at Naruto's name on his paper. He would fix his loneliness if it was the last thing he did.


	2. Chapter 2: Growing Up

Naruto Parallels: Series 1-2

Hey There!

I'm a huge Naruto fan! I love the entire series, but I'm mostly a watcher of the anime (subbed never dubbed because I can't STAND the dubbed voices). I do know the outcome of the series and I've played around with Fan Fiction before, mostly with filler stuff that isn't shown, but right now in the most recent episodes on Hulu where I watch, everyone is trapped in Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi and the series is showing depictions of everyone's dreams. I find it interesting that a lot of the dreams ultimately end up having some truth to them, but I really loved TenTen's dream and how instead of it being her wildest desires, it was more "dream esc" and depicted what the class and village would be like if the class had these vastly different personalities. I also loved Jiraiya's book in Tsunade's dream and how it depicted things if Naruto and Sasuke's families never died. Thus my new fan fiction series was born where I take different prompts and write a Fic based on if the prompt were true or false. If you have any fun prompts feel free to let me know! I'm looking for fun suggestions and I would love to flex my writing skills and see just how creative we can get! I hope you enjoy them!

Prompt: What if Naruto and Sasuke's roles were reversed?

Story Tangent: Unlike the actual series where Sasuke knows who killed his clan, and is driven by anger. In order to flip Naruto's roles, I changed that detail so that, while Sasuke did lose his entire clan, he has no idea it was his brother's doing (though he is still the one who did it in my parallel universe). As a means of giving his brother a better life, Itachi asked the third Hokage, Lord Hiruzen, to appoint Sasuke to his old ANBU Captain, Kakashi's team after the academy, and asked Kakashi to look after his brother as a friend and fellow Sharingan user. He also left behind a letter (contents revealed in the story) that managed to quell Sasuke's anger and convince him to serve Konoha honorably as a shinobi. Hiruzen was so busy with the impending Uchiha overthrow, and later Itachi's requests, that he took no interest in Naruto or helping improve his life and as a result he succumbed to his anger and loneliness early in his life, and the Nine-Tails regularly stokes the fire.

CHAPTER TWO: AGING

After spending so much time in the Academy over the last several years, everyone had begun to make friends except Naruto. Sasuke got along best with a boy named Neji. They both had mature dispositions and were strong and at the head of their class. Sasuke had made several attempts to reach out to Naruto but nothing really seemed to work. He recalled a time when Sasuke overheard several students whispering about Naruto and discussing how their parents said they weren't to play with him.

"They whisper about me too." Sasuke remembered telling him, but Naruto ignored him.

On several occasions Naruto would jump the fence and skip class and a few times he got caught sending Shadow Clones to class instead of actually going. Sasuke was always a little impressed compared to everyone else's annoyance, because it must take a lot of chakra to keep a shadow clone present for an entire class period.

"What's wrong with that boy?" Neji asked Sasuke as they sparred one time after class.

"Which boy?" Sasuke asked, dodging Neji's blows.

Sasuke began to swing a kick towards Neji, but he grabbed his ankle and tossed it back to the ground. "Nice kick. It's going to have to be faster though."

Sasuke grumbled. "Which boy, Neji?"

"Naruto." Neji said strained as he failed to block Sasuke's punch. "Your kick was a diversion?"

Sasuke smirked ducking a swing, but getting hit by a stomach blow. "I don't think anything is wrong with him. He's lonely."

"Lord Hiashi said he's dangerous and to stay away from him. No one told you that?" Neji asked, as he spun away from a barrage of kicks from Sasuke before going back on the offensive.

Sasuke had to think quick about avoiding Neji's quick onslaught of slices with his open fist. He grunted as he blocked the first few but the next consecutive blows hit him directly and he fell backwards and hit the ground. Neji reached out his hand to Sasuke who grabbed it and stood dusting off his shorts.

"Alright, that ties us up again." Neji huffed as he pulled up Sasuke.

"No." Sasuke responded.

Neji looked into the sky as he thought. "I won the first two but then you—."

"No, I mean no one ever told me to stay away from Naruto. When I asked about him my brother said he was orphaned and that people feared and hated him but he never told me to do that. Actually my brother sounded like he felt bad for him. Even if he had told me to do that I wouldn't have. I think we should only pass judgment on others once we've met them and form opinions of our own. Listening to others is what muddies the waters." Sasuke explained.

Neji eyed him as they began to walk back into town. "That famous Hokage dream talking?"

Sasuke smiled. "This village deserves better than it's had. I heard that the Third and Fourth Hokages were there when the nine-tails rampaged and they couldn't prevent so many casualties. Besides, Lord Third hasn't gone to bat for Naruto. He didn't choose to become what he is, just like I didn't choose what my family did."

Neji bowed his head. "I'm embarrassed. You've been more compassionate than me. I'll admit I've given in to all of the rumors about Naruto, but maybe you're right. Once we're sorted into teams tomorrow, I'll try a bit harder."

Sasuke smiled proudly at himself. He was already changing the course of Naruto's loneliness just as he had planned.

The next day as they sat at their desks awaiting their team assignments Sasuke felt conflicted. He knew that teams were typically divided by two boys and one girl. He wanted to be on a team with Neji but he also knew that he would better be able to help Naruto if they were on a team together. Iruka had begun reading the teams some time ago but Sasuke was distracted, he refocused his attention in time to hear the last four teams read.

"With Guy; Lee, TenTen, and Neji." Sasuke bowed his head, that was out. "With Kurenai; Kiba, Hinata, and Shino."

"THE BUG KID!?" Kiba shouted out from the back row. A nearby student hushed him.

"With Asuma—." Iruka kept going but was cut off.

"Ah, you don't need to tell us, it's me, Shikamaru and Choji right?" Ino cut in.

Iruka nodded and smiled. "You know your families' histories well Ino."

The class slowly started to whisper and turn their eyes towards the three sitting at Sasuke's desk. Sasuke hadn't heard all the teams read, so he didn't entirely know who was left, but as he glanced around he could pretty much guess.

"With Kakashi; Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto." Sasuke blushed. It was even better than he'd expected. He turned and looked at Sakura and she was staring back at him smiling cheerily. He knew he wanted to focus on Naruto but this was a nice bonus.

A few days later they were sitting at one of Konoha's lookout points with their new sensei, Kakashi.

"Well then, let's start with introductions and tell us what your dreams are as well." Kakashi smiled. "I'll start. I'm Kakashi. I once dreamed of becoming the strongest ninja in all of Konoha, one who would never fail a mission. Over time I learned and grew, and now my dream is to always protect my comrades."

Kakashi turned to Sakura who was sitting on the right edge of the trio. "You?"

Sakura smiled. "I'm Sakura Haruno, and um… I like um…" Sakura glanced over at Sasuke and Naruto and blushed. Kakashi smiled and turned his gaze to Sasuke.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. In a single night my entire clan was killed and no one in the village knows who did it. I feel very strongly that it was the Hokage's job to protect my clan and he couldn't. My dream is to become Hokage. One that can adequately protect this village from danger and evil."

Kakashi nodded, though apprehensively and then dropped his gaze on Naruto who was glaring back at him. "And you?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I come from nothing, I have nothing. I want nothing. To survive is my only goal."

Everyone stared at him nervously. Kakashi, who's face had fallen into a stern one, returned to a smile. "Well, I can help you survive, but I think you'll find as you get older that your goals will change too."

The next day Kakashi challenged the team to the bell test which they originally failed. Though they got close several times to getting them but Kakashi proved to always be once step ahead. Sasuke was excited to learn that he had a Sharingan. While he didn't know why he had it, he didn't unlock his own until after his clan died and now he had someone to train with it with. It was a level of belonging Sasuke never thought he'd achieve once he lost his brother.

The happiness he felt was ultimately what drove him to offer Naruto lunch when he was tied to the post after not even trying to get a bell. The punishment for losing was no lunch but Sasuke felt that Kakashi would forgive him and offered some anyway. He originally refused to take it but his stomach growled and gave away his true nature and Sakura was beginning to force feed him a little bit when Kakashi popped out and revealed that true teamwork was the point of the exercise and their refusal to let Naruto go hungry earned them a pass. They were officially Kakashi's first passing team.


	3. Chapter 3: Chunin Exams Round One

Naruto Parallels: Series 1-3

Hey There!

I'm a huge Naruto fan! I love the entire series, but I'm mostly a watcher of the anime (subbed never dubbed because I can't STAND the dubbed voices). I do know the outcome of the series and I've played around with Fan Fiction before, mostly with filler stuff that isn't shown, but right now in the most recent episodes on Hulu where I watch, everyone is trapped in Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi and the series is showing depictions of everyone's dreams. I find it interesting that a lot of the dreams ultimately end up having some truth to them, but I really loved TenTen's dream and how instead of it being her wildest desires, it was more "dream esc" and depicted what the class and village would be like if the class had these vastly different personalities. I also loved Jiraiya's book in Tsunade's dream and how it depicted things if Naruto and Sasuke's families never died. Thus my new fan fiction series was born where I take different prompts and write a Fic based on if the prompt were true or false. If you have any fun prompts feel free to let me know! I'm looking for fun suggestions and I would love to flex my writing skills and see just how creative we can get! I hope you enjoy them!

Prompt: What if Naruto and Sasuke's roles were reversed?

Story Tangent: Unlike the actual series where Sasuke knows who killed his clan, and is driven by anger. In order to flip Naruto's roles, I changed that detail so that, while Sasuke did lose his entire clan, he has no idea it was his brother's doing (though he is still the one who did it in my parallel universe). As a means of giving his brother a better life, Itachi asked the third Hokage, Lord Hiruzen, to appoint Sasuke to his old ANBU Captain, Kakashi's team after the academy, and asked Kakashi to look after his brother as a friend and fellow Sharingan user. He also left behind a letter (contents revealed in the story) that managed to quell Sasuke's anger and convince him to serve Konoha honorably as a shinobi. Hiruzen was so busy with the impending Uchiha overthrow, and later Itachi's requests, that he took no interest in Naruto or helping improve his life and as a result he succumbed to his anger and loneliness early in his life, and the Nine-Tails regularly stokes the fire.

CHAPTER THREE: CHUNIN EXAMS ROUND ONE

"Naruto! If you refuse to compete we can't compete either. We need three people!" Sakura screamed at him. She reached down and grabbed Sasuke's hand. "Tell him."

Despite being thrown off by Sakura grabbing his hand, he mustered up the sincerest face he could and looked at Naruto. Kakashi stood by nervously. After trying for most of the previous day to convince him, he'd turned to Sakura and Sasuke, for whom Naruto had actually shown a bit of softness, for help.

"Naruto, I know that you don't care about stuff like this, and probably not much about us either, but if even a small part of you has compassion for me. For the fact that I have nothing, just like you, compete with us. Then when we become chunin, you can leave our team or stay or whatever you want."

Naruto closed his eyes and sat in silence for a long time. Each of the three other members of Team Kakashi had impulses to say something but abstained. Until now, Naruto had only objected, they could tell that he was actually considering it now. After an unbearably long time, Naruto stood up and walked directly up to Sasuke. Sakura gripped his hand tighter.

"Fine. I'll compete with you, but make no mistake. We are not the same." His voice was harsh and cold despite delivering good news. He stared Sasuke down for a while before he finally walked around them and out of the training grounds where they were sitting.

Sakura dropped Sasuke's hand and turned so she could see Kakashi and Sasuke. "Honestly, what is his deal? At first I thought he was really cool and brooding but at some point you have to start striving for something right? Otherwise what are you living for?"

"Sakura, it's important for you and Sasuke not to give up on Naruto. He's never had anyone, so he doesn't really know how to… have someone." Kakashi explained.

"He's right. We aren't the same. My father may not have ever acknowledged me but he did help me and train me. I've been hugged by my mother and loved by my brother. Losing them wasn't easy but it's my memories of them that help me get through it. If only someone had defended Naruto back then and told them not to fear him, others might have been more willing to befriend him. His heart is so blocked off now, but we'll open it up, right Sakura?"

Sakura nodded happily.

"With friends like you, Naruto will be doing better in no time." Kakashi complemented.

The morning of the chunin exams, Team Kakashi went to the training grounds early to go over formations. It was true that Naruto was generally listless, but Kakashi had taken to threatening to tie him back to the post if he didn't train so he often did so, even if it was begrudgingly.

They were all prepared for whatever physical tasks were headed their way, so they were quite disappointed when they got inside and found that the first stage of the exams was a written test. The three of them were spread pretty far apart but Sasuke had the advantage of being able to see both Sakura and Naruto from where he was sitting. Ibiki from the Leaf was the proctor of the test. He was terrifying looking and one of the five nations' top interrogators and torture tactics coordinators. It made Sasuke nervous to see him in such a venue. On a few occasions prior to his clan's slaughter, Ibiki visited their sector of the village. Sasuke never knew why he was there and Itachi took Sasuke and left each time he showed up.

He walked authoritatively to the front of the room, once everyone was seated, to explain the rules.

"It's simple. The test will be one hour long and you'll have to answer ten questions." Sasuke looked down at his paper, there were definitely only nine questions.

"You'll have 45 minutes to answer all the questions on your paper and after 45 minutes the tenth question will be read aloud and you'll be able to answer it at that time. The complete test is one-hour long. The system operates by deducting one point for each question you get wrong and whether the entire team passes or fails will be based on the collective total of the team's points." He explained.

"What!?" Sakura called out. She eyed Naruto nervously, as did Sasuke. He didn't particularly listen during The Academy. Even if he did care about this exam he probably wouldn't do well.

Sasuke began to realize that it would fall to he and Sakura to do well to accommodate for Naruto's lack of points when the proctor announced that if any one member of the team got zero points, the team as a whole would be disqualified. "Damn it." He whispered under his breath.

"Further, do not try to arbitrarily cheat on this exam, doing so will result in a deduction of two points for each time you're caught. If your points drop to zero by awkwardly cheating on this test, the entire team will be eliminated."

Several members of the test began to shift uncomfortably. It was clear the pressure of not disappointing each other's team members was weighing down. The test began and everyone stared for quite a long time at their papers without doing anything. Sasuke quickly became discouraged. He barely understood these questions so he definitely didn't think that Naruto would. He began to wonder why the test was built so that cheating wasn't an automatic failure when in any other setting it would be.

Then it hit him.

The point of the exam was to cheat, but to do so discreetly. The questions are intentionally difficult; no one shinobi could know each answer. The only way to answer multiple questions correctly was to cheat, but if you couldn't do so without being caught you weren't worthy of being a shinobi who, in the future, could collect intel and distribute it quickly and accurately to comrades without being caught by the enemy. Sasuke immediately thought to use his Sharingan. To confirm what he already knew, he glanced at Naruto first, but as expected he was barely moving. Whether he didn't care or he didn't know; he wasn't answering the questions.

Sasuke moved on to Sakura who was quickly etching away at her test. He was proud that she knew the answers even without cheating and felt confident that if he copied her answers they would both get perfect scores; they then, simply had to hope, that Naruto would be able to pass the 10th question. He used his Sharingan to copy Sakura's movements and his visual prowess couldn't help but pick up a few of the other cheating tactics. He wondered if they were being noticed by the proctor or his assistants.

Suddenly a kunai flew across the room and landed directly in the center of a test paper in front of a boy two seats down from him.

"Number 87 is disqualified!" One of the assistant ninja shouted out.

"Then number 113 and 110 are disqualified as well!" Another replied.

Sasuke watched nervously as three ninja stood and walked sheepishly from the room. Soon it felt like the proctors were disqualifying a team every few minutes, the ranks were depleting quickly. Sasuke and Sakura had been done for several minutes when the proctor began talking again.

"Alright, regardless of where you are, the first part of the test is over. It's time for the 10th question. However, now there are some new rules."

"New rules?" Sakura whispered.

"You'll have to choose if you want to answer the 10th question."

A girl from the sand with four spiked ponytails stood up. "What do you mean!?"

"You'll have to decide if you want to take the test or not. If you choose not to answer the 10th question you'll receive a score of zero meaning you and your team will be disqualified from the Chunin Exams."

Several people around the room gasped and argued. "Well then we don't have much choice!" One guy screamed out.

"Shut up! I'm not done explaining!"

A hushed and tense silence fell over the room as several of the proctor's assistants began to smile.

"If you choose to answer the final question and you get it wrong…" He stopped talking for a moment and let the air linger with anxiety. "…you'll never be able to compete in another Chunin Exam again. You'll be genin for the rest of your life."

Shock gripped everyone left in the room as the words left his mouth.

"That's ridiculous! There are people here who've competed before!" Someone yelled not far from Sasuke.

Ibiki smiled evilly. "Ah. I guess you're just unlucky, but remember, I gave you another option. You may choose to quit now and try your luck again next year."

The room sat motionless and silent for a long time.

Then slowly the boy sitting directly next to Sasuke raised his hand. "I'm sorry. I can't take that risk."

"Number 13 is disqualified. 99 and 137 too." A nearby assistant said.

The disqualified ninja stood and slowly began leaving the room. Sasuke was slightly shocked at how many of the ninja started raising their hands. Though a few of the teammates seemed disappointed, most seemed relieved as they stood up and left the room. Less than 1/3 of the people remained when the quitting seemed to cease.

Sasuke noticed Sakura start to shake a bit and he was shocked when she slowly started to raise her hand into the air.

"I can't see my so-called comrades." Naruto started at exactly the same time. "But I really hope after they dragged me here, that they aren't considering wimping out."

Sasuke glared at Naruto's back. If Sakura didn't feel comfortable trying, then he'd rather wait until next year. Then again, it was difficult enough as it was to get him to compete this year, there was no way of knowing if they could do it again, especially if they quit now. By the time Sasuke looked back over at Sakura, she'd placed her hand back on the desk.

"I'll ask one last time. Would anyone like to quit?" Ibiki reiterated.

Sasuke watched the remaining people. He recognized most of the remaining as kids from his class. He wondered what it was about this class that made them so confident, or stupid.

"Then…" Ibiki walked to the front of the room. "…Those of you left. I like your confidence. If you're still in this room, you've passed the first test!"

The room was dumbfounded and silent.

"WHAT!?" Sakura screamed out.

"The point of the final test was to determine your willingness to accept the unknown. If you're on a mission, regardless of what you may not know about what lies ahead, you have to be brave enough to put your life, and even your comrades' lives, on the line to see the mission through to the end. Those of you that were willing to answer the final question despite the anxiety I put on you to end your careers and potentially the careers of your comrades, it means you're willing to take those risks and just might be worthy of being chunin but—."

Midway through his explanation a large red boulder came flying through the window. In some strange display of theatrics, a ninja began rapidly attaching a banner to the ceiling, leaving Ibiki behind it. The banner read 'Anko; Ninja of Death' on it. A purple haired kunoichi stood confidently in front of the banner with her hands on her hips.

"Don't be so sure Ibiki! They haven't been through my trial yet!" She glanced around the room. "30 huh? I'm surprised even 10 teams made it through this freak show. Still, 10 teams will make my trial less interesting."

Everyone stared at her in confusion. Ibiki peeked around the banner. "I wasn't finished."

"Now you are! If they thought this was scary, it's nothing compared to what I've got cooked up. Each of you should convene at exactly 2 o'clock tomorrow at the third training grounds! There we'll see, if you really have what it takes."

A mix of emotions flooded the room as most teams came together to congratulate one another and speculate on what tomorrow's test would be. Sasuke had barely made it to Sakura's side when he noticed Naruto walking from the room. He didn't even stick around to receive praise; how typical.

Sakura walked over to his paper and picked it up. "As expected." Sasuke walked over and glanced over her shoulder at it. "Not one question answered; not even his name."


	4. Chapter 4: Chunin Exams Round Two

All the different ninja stood staring at the huge forest that had been erected where the third training grounds used to be. It was surrounded by a tall fence that was locked shut with several locks. To one side, a small booth had three ninja sitting inside. Unlike the arrogant way Ibiki's assistants sat smiling, these assistants seemed nervous and weak. Anko, the woman from yesterday, walked to the front of the group and faced them. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto were near the front so they had a good view of her. She was gripping a stack of papers in one hand, and two scrolls in the other.

"Welcome to round two of the Chunin Exams. You've done well to make it here, but sitting in a room taking a high stakes pop quiz is nothing compared to what you're about to endure. From here on out it's life or death."

The words rang out and the ninja began to whisper nervously to one another.

"Behind me is the Forest of Death. It's a huge forest with all of the same qualities as a regular forest, including natural resources and bodies of water. In the middle, roughly 10 meters from any one entrance, is a tower. Of the ninja that showed up to participate in the first round yesterday, only 30 of you survived, meaning there are 10 teams among you. Each team will receive one of these two scrolls, either heaven or earth."

Anko held up the two scrolls which seemed to oppose one another. One was black with white markings, the other was white with black markings; one read heaven, the other read earth.

"What is the objective?" Naruto asked simply.

"To reach the tower with all of your comrades in one piece, as well as one earth scroll and one heaven scroll. How you obtain the scroll you don't start with is entirely up to you. You'll have 120 hours, or five days exactly, to complete this task."

"Well no one is just going to give up a scroll, it means we'll have to fight each other right?" The hooded ninja from the Sand trio asked from almost directly behind Sasuke. "I wish we would quit with all the secrecy and just have something straightforward. This isn't really the best way to—." Before he could finish Anko tossed a Kunai at him at top speed. It tore through the top of Sasuke's shirt, grazed the boy's cheek, sliced a few strands of hair off the tall Kunoichi behind him and hit the ground several meters away.

In an instant, Anko was behind the hooded boy, wiping blood from his cheek. "You shouldn't talk back to someone as scary as me who's thirsty for blood." She'd barely finished her sentence, when she quickly pulled another kunai from her jacket and pointed it backwards at the Kunoichi whose hair had been cut. Sasuke was disturbed and nearly sick when the woman extended her tongue the full length of the space between her and Anko and offered her back the kunai she'd just thrown.

"This woman is seriously creepy." Sakura whispered to Sasuke; he agreed.

After accepting her kunai back, Anko returned to the front of the group. "In order to compete in the second round of the exam you have to sign these release forms. There's no rules once you enter the Forest of Death. You have to sign the release so that I'm not held responsible for those who may not make it."

Even though she was delivering such horrifying information, she had a bright smile on her face. "Decide as a team if you will compete. You must go in together, so if any one person on your team chooses not to participate, none of you can. Three must go in, even if three do not come out."

Not far from Sasuke, one of his classmates, Shikamaru, raised his hand slowly. "Can we quit halfway through?"

"Ah good question. I suppose that is one of the only rules. You must spend all five days in the forest even if you lose both scrolls. The only other rules are those that could disqualify your team from the exams. If any member of your team becomes incapacitated, the entire team is disqualified. Further, if you can't get to the tower with both scrolls in tow, you fail this round. If you've have decided to press on, sign your form, turn it in and then select an entrance gate. All doors will open in exactly 30 minutes. Good luck!" Anko finished explaining and handed the stack of papers to the person nearest to her who followed suit by taking one and passing it to the next person.

When Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto signed and turned in their forms they chose gate 38 chosen mostly by Naruto who walked to the nearest gate and refused to go anywhere else. They were waiting in silence when Naruto suddenly turned around and faced Sasuke and Sakura.

"Look, I don't want to be here, but I'm not about to die taking some stupid test so let's get to this tower quickly and get this over with." Naruto lectured.

"We still have to get the other scroll Naruto; we only have the heaven one." Sakura looked at the scroll in her hand.

"That reminds me, I think I have a good strategy. One of us should head to the tower with the scroll while the other two go out and look for the Earth Scroll. That way all we have to do is get the Earth Scroll back to the tower rather than running the risk of losing one of the scrolls on the way back." Sasuke pitched.

"It's not a terrible idea." Naruto replied, much to Sasuke and Sakura's surprise. "Sakura should be the one to hide at the tower with our scroll. You're smallest and smartest so it will be easiest for you to keep the scroll safe. Sasuke and I are strong enough that we can split up and each look for an Earth Scroll."

Sakura smiled and blushed at Naruto's compliment and Sasuke was happy he was participating. He smiled with determination. Kakashi was right, things did work much better as a team.

"ROUND TWO OF THE CHUNIN EXAM BEGINS NOW!" They heard Anko scream from the other side of the nearby booth.

Sasuke immediately braced his Sharingan as they walked in. "It seems there's no team at either gate directly next to ours, but we're sure to encounter some on the way to the tower which should be straight from here; be on your guard."

"Sasuke, can you get Sakura safely to the tower? I'll start searching." Though Naruto posed it as a question, he hopped off before they could answer.

"He didn't even wait." Sakura noted. "Well no problem, let's go."

"Right." Sasuke agreed and they took off for the tower.

Sasuke was relieved to not run into any other teams on his way to drop Sakura at the tower. When they got there she ingeniously came up with the idea to hide in the shrubbery outside the tower; using genjutsu to hide herself from others. It was her idea to use genjutsu that actually led Sasuke to suggest exchanging Kunai knives. If anyone tried to imitate them, but didn't have the other's kunai, they would be able to determine the one was a fake. Ensuring that she was well secured, Sasuke leapt back into the forest to find an Earth Scroll.

Suddenly a harsh gale of wind flew in his direction and knocked him off of his feet. When he looked up he saw the same creepy woman he'd seen outside, facing him with an Earth Scroll in her hand. He used his Sharingan to glance around a bit; he could tell she was alone. Though she creeped him out, Sasuke was confident in his ability to take her down, if he used the new jutsu Kakashi taught him. He didn't want to pull it out right away so he rested and waited for her to make the first move.

"Sasuke Uchiha. You appear to have good use of your Sharingan, shocking for your age." She hissed out at him. He was becoming increasingly more nervous; why did she seem to know him? "You want my scroll right?" Sasuke remained silent. His look of determination turned to horror as the woman opened her mouth wider than humanly possible and swallowed the scroll whole.

She bit off the top layer of skin on her thumb and drew a line of blood along her forearm. Then she slammed her hand down on the branch of the large tree where they were perched. "Summoning Jutsu."

In a huff of smoke, a giant snake coiled its way up the tree, showing its huge head above the woman's. Even with Sasuke's Sharingan, the fear of the situation overcame him and he became immobilized as the snake slithered towards him with lightning speed. It wrapped its way around the tree, binding Sasuke to it, and stopping face-to-face with him. The head was nearly as large as Sasuke. It opened its mouth and Sasuke's fear increased when the head of the woman appeared from it.

"You're not very strong yet Sasuke; we'll change that." The head of the woman flew forward and bit Sasuke on the neck. His body began searing with pain and he felt like he had no energy left.

With the small bit of composure Sasuke had left, he saw a flash of orange light fly by him suddenly. The giant snake lost the light of life in it's eyes, and the woman's face looked shocked. It gagged a bit and then her Earth Scroll popped out. Sasuke caught it and held onto it tightly as he slowly passed out.

When he woke up he was sitting on the top of the tower with Sakura looking down at him.

"Naruto! He woke up!" Sakura called out. She was cradling his head in her arms.

Sasuke sat up and was a touch embarrassed to see Kakashi, Anko and several of the other village ninja standing around him.

"What's going on?" He whispered out.

"Well we passed the test, but it seems some dangerous ninja snuck into the exams. He's gone now, so things will proceed as scheduled but that ninja was the snake one you ran into back there." Naruto explained.

"It's a good thing Naruto came along when he did otherwise things might have gotten much worse." Kakashi noted.

"Yeah and you managed to hang on to the Earth Scroll so Anko is passing us along with the 6 other teams that had at least one scroll when they came in to cancel the rest of this round. Due to the fact that so many people passed, and some without completing the task, there's going to be a one-on-one round in just a few hours."

Sasuke rubbed the back of his neck, still not entirely what happened when Kakashi approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll deal with that."


End file.
